Don't trust anyone under 30!

Hey-a, loyal readers! Like always, it's been a long time between updates. I've been up to a lot lately. One thing I did since last update was have an art show as part of the return of the amazing Chicago Blackout. I sold a lot of paintings, but this one was one of my favorites!



Another thing I did was turn 30. The Hemingers got to play a super fun show in Kalamazoo with Peach Kelli Pop for my B-day...here's a pic!



I finally got my hands on one of these nifty bird banks. I almost got one a couple years ago, but when I showed up at the antique store with money, it was gone. This one is in REALLY great shape, and still has a key to open the bottom and a scroll with a poem on it intact. It's made by Oy Mk Tuote Ab in Finland, in I'm guessing sometime between '65 and '72. Gonked Glooked Slurped wrote about these a year or so ago.



Here's another view of it on my cruddy living room couch.



I got this neat ceramic drunk monk bank from the local goodwill for $2. There's no maker's marks, and I assume it's just something someone made in a ceramics class.



This folk art PBR can man was at one of my favorite local antique stores. It's neat but when you lift his can....



....he has a wang! The rubber band is broken, but when you lift the can, he's supposed to get a boner. I had to buy it, 'cuz I'm nothing if not classy!



We picked up this nifty Stanley cabinet last summer in Lansing, and I never got around to uploading the pictures until now. Our friend Colleen wrote about this exact cabinet last year on her excellent Space Age Squirrel blog.



We had our eyes on it for a long time, but it was out of our price range. Every time we saw it, it got a little cheaper until we finally snagged it for $95.



It's at Melanie's bakery,and is currently LOADED with antiques...and the bakery now has a cooler floor. Right after we got this, my mom scored a pair of even better cabinets by stanley at an estate sale for $75. I'm jealous!



There are no manufacturer markings on this KILLER chair. We found it in Marshall, MI at another of my favorite antique shoppes. I now need a giant world map with red pins marking my next targets, and a long haired cat to pet while I plot evil deeds.



This picture is in the bakery basement, but it currently sits in the office. Any info on the manufacturer would be much appreciated.

Randomness

So, I know I have left my readers out in the cold for several months. I feel terrible about it. I've been super busy lately, putting together 2 art shows and doing a bit of traveling. Also, I was without a camera for a good chunk of time...but enough of my excuses...let's jump in it!

I honestly don't remember where I got these bobble head tigers. Maybe I'm getting Alzheimer's early. They were at one of the local antique stores a few months ago, I think, but I don't remember which one.



Melanie and I stopped in a nifty antique shop in Memphis while we were in town for Gonerfest, and she picked up this little purse with winking eyes. She has a couple similar coin purses that I'm sure were made by the same company, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of them when I see 'em...damn Alzheimer's.




Flip it over, and it's a guy. Tranny purse.



When we got home from Memphis, we were greeted by a new floor in the bakery.



My mom got me this cat for x-mas as a stocking stuffer. She doesn't know I know she got it at the local Salvation Army for $1. I think there's a matching dog around here somewhere...A bunch of my stuff's in boxes.



This Flip Wilson talking doll was my X-mas gift to myself. At $5, I couldn't pass it up...



...especially considering that when you flip Flip over, he becomes Geraldine, and hangs out with tranny purse.



This is Gaylord...he was made in 1962 by Ideal, and I found this one still with it's bone! My parents wouldn't let me have a dog when I was a kid, and I suspect that if I was a kid in 1962, they would have gotten me this instead and told me it's just as good as a real dog. That's what this toy was...something to shut your kids up when they beg for a dog...No wonder Gaylord's time in toy stores was short. The name probably doesn't help much.





These garage rocker dolls were in the same Memphis antique store as the tranny purse. I think they look like my friend Jules. I don't know where or when they were made, but they are pretty cool regardless.



I gave Melanie this poodle for Christmas, and it turned out that she had almost bought it for me. That happens every year. We got each other Charles Phoenix books, and my mom and Melanie both got me the "Cartoon Modern" book about mid-century modern animation.

I must've had tacos the day I took this picture, hence the Mexican Pepsi bottle lurking in the background.



This awesome sad eye cat picture was an x-mas gift from my mom.



Melanie got me another piece for my big/sad eye collection for Christmas...



...as well as her big sister. I dig the big eye/pin-up crossover! I also dig my bathroom's wallpaper!



Well, hopefully it won't be such a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE gap between updates next time.

You Don't Go In The Bathroom With Me!

If you don't get the Misfits reference, don't worry, this post isn't about poop...Hell, that song isn't even about poop, it's about murder. This post isn't about murder either, though. It's about the redecorating job I did on the bathroom at the bakery.

I wish I had pictures of this bathroom when Melanie bought the place. It was UUUUGGGLLLLLYYYY! It was a dark red, with gold poorly sponged over it, with 80's navy blue light house wallpaper half-assedly glued half way up the wall.

This is what I did with it...



On the two larger walls, I hand painted this design. I based it a lot on the background painting from shows like the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and Ren and Stimpy, along with mid-century(and mid-century influenced) hipster artists, like Shag, and Jim Flora. Also, cheap motels and gin and tonics. Yes, it took a very long time to get it just right...I was a total Nazi about it too, just ask Melanie.



The door was just a plain, light, cheap, wood office door. I redid it(along with all the doors in the bakery) in a 50's mint green, same as I used in the middle of all the squares on the walls. The trim is a gloss gray.



The trash can under the sink we picked up in Ypsilanti, MI. I forgot why we were there, probably on the way to Detroit for a show. I had seen these online and had it in mind when I did the bathroom, so I had to grab it the second I saw it. It isn't old, and was really cheap, like $10 I think.



The clock is a Lux(No Cramps relation). I see these a lot and for cheap. In fact, there's two at the local antique mall right now for around $30, if I remember right. I think we got this one for $15 or $20, I don't remember. I do remember that we bought it the day our apartment in Kalamazoo got robbed, and I was carrying it in when I noticed stuff was amiss. I'm guessing it's from the later 60's. It plugs into the wall, but I wound the cord up behind it, because it's an ugly, kinked up cord, and the clock is loud when plugged in, and I don't usually go to the bathroom to check the time.



I found this lampshade at this weird antique used mug/junk store that used to be in the neighborhood. The owner died, and I bought a ton of random crap off her son, who I think just wanted to shovel everything into a huge dumpster. I painted the blue squares on it though. The 70's green glass lamp used to belong to a friend of mine who had a bunch of cool late 60's/early 70's stuff...Lots of owl stuff, puke green chairs, things like that. She's one of those people, though, that just snapped one day, got an office job, stopped going to shows, stopped hanging out, married some random boring guy and started shitting out kids. What bummed me out the most is that when she changed lifestyles over night, she abandoned a couple paintings I'd done for her. Another friend of mine rescued them from the trash. What the hell. Anyway, I managed to save a few neat things she was tossing, this lamp being one.



Here it is turned off. The table it's on I picked up at a church sale for $3. The reading material is Atomic Ranch...Which I took WAY too long to find out existed.



I feel bad for going almost a month without a new post for y'all. I've been pretty busy/distracted/drunk. Here's some more posters I've done lately, I hope you enjoy them.

I wish I was in Florida for this...that's one hell of a lineup!



This one's for a show in Dublin, Ireland!



I'm going to this in a couple hours!



I wish I coulda made it to this one too!